Who has created the first watch?

Even today, when the simple wristwatch would seemingly be obsolete, watchmakers are continuing to produce and sell newer and more inventive timepieces. To understand the lasting appeal of the wristwatch, we need to look back at its origin and examine the many stages of its evolution.

After centuries and millennia’s of using watch designs that used the movement of the celestial bodies and flow of water to calculate the passage of time, modern human civilization finally achieved a mechanical and industrial environment in which precise clock could be made.

This Pomander Watch by Peter Henlein

Even though pages of history have forgotten about many watchmakers, Peter Henlein is an Innovator, the modern scientific community, a clockmaker from the Nuremberg, Germany. He is the father of the modern clock and the originator of the entire clock making industry that we know today.

Peter Henlein was born in 1485 in Nuremberg, Germany

Peter Henlein was born in 1485, and very little is known about his early life. It is most probable that he became an apprentice as a repairman and locksmith. In Nuremberg, he was one of the most famous locksmiths, who was especially praised for his ability to create a small spring-powered brass clock which was then very rare and expensive. With such popularity, it was not strange that local and distant nobility contacted him on a regular basis, demanding ever more beautiful and smaller clock designs. As far as historical records are concerned, Peter’s first clock was made in 1510, and by 1541 he was well known for his craft and has been tasked on building not only small clocks but also big tower clock for Lichtenau castle.

The Henlein pocket watch dispute

This Pomander Watch by Peter Henlein in 1505

Even though his spring designs made lose several hours during one day’s work or even portable with around 3 inches in size. The clocks that were made by Peter Henlein soon became a sensation in Europe scientific circles and later on by the general European population.

Nowadays, Peter Henlein is regarded as a father of modern clocks even though he was not the first locksmith that made small clock designs or was responsible for the discovery of key clock components. He died in 1547 knowing that his invention will live forever.

Peter Henlein died in 1547, Nuremberg 

Peter Henlein, Nuremberg